@UHawaiiNews March 3

The plan for starting my blog back in 2014 was at the urging of fellow coaching colleagues to share posts on leadership and/or motivation. Somehow that idea got derailed and turned into daily posts on one theme for an entire year.

In 2014 my daily posts were on the “Beer of the Day”, 2015 it was “A Friend of a Friend”, 2016 I wrote about “North Carolina”, and for 2017 I will focus on “Colleges and Universities”.

I have been associated with colleges since I was 18 and I love them. I have coached/worked at four different universities and in my professional and personal travels visited 100’s more. Each college has something in its history that I want to share that to me make it unique or personal.

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My twitter handle is @coach4aday2 if you want to follow my blog that way.

Name of University: University of Hawaii – Manoa

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii

The Hawaiian Island are home to the ten campuses on six islands that make up the University of Hawaii. The flagship campus of the system is University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Founded in 1907, the University of Hawaiʻi System includes 3 universities and 7 community colleges.

UH Mānoa was founded in 1907 under the Morrill Act as a land-grant college of agriculture and mechanic arts. Regular classes began the following year with President John Gilmore at the helm and five freshmen, five preparatory students, and 13 faculty in temporary quarters near Honolulu’s Thomas Square. In 1912 the newly-named College of Hawaiʻi relocated to Mānoa Valley and the first permanent building — known today as Hawaiʻi Hall — was erected amid pig farms and kiawe groves.

Hawai’i Hall shown below.

The University of Hawaii has sponsored football since 1909 and their first nickname was the Fighting Deans.

Up until 1923, UH teams were nicknamed the “Deans.” Then in the final game of the 1923 season, UH head coach Otto Klum’s squad upset Oregon State, 7-0, at Mo‘ili‘ili Field. During the game, a rainbow appeared over the field. Reporters started calling UH teams the Rainbows, and the tradition began that Hawai‘i would not lose a game if a rainbow appeared.

Rainbows, however, had magical powers long before football came to the islands. Hawaiian chiefs considered them sacred and used them as signs of a chief’s presence. A rainbow hovering over a newborn child indicated that he was of a god-like rank.

The rainbow was part of the official logo (pictured) at the UH Athletics Department from 1982-2000.